Necessary equipment:

• Medium pan
• Slow cooker or large pot/dutch oven

Ingredients:

• 1 whole rabbit cut into 6 equal pieces
• 1/2 cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper
• 1 medium yellow onion sliced into thick strips
• 1/2 – 1 lb of baby portobello mushrooms (aka crimini mushrooms), washed
• 1 whole bulb of garlic
• Some olive oil
• Some white wine
• 2 medium sized turnips peeled and cut into ~2 cm (3/4 inch) pieces
• 8 small red potatoes, rinsed, with skin
• Salt and pepper
• 4 cups flavored stock (I didn’t have enough chicken bouillon to make 4 cups, so I supplemented it with vegetable)
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3 Tablespoons of cornstarch slurried in 1/8 cup of water (for thickening, leave out if you like your stews thin)

Optional ingredients:

• Liver from the rabbit

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F
2. Cut the top third off of the garlic bulb, drizzle it with olive oil, then loosely wrap in aluminum and bake for 45 min

Meanwhile…

1. Heat a pan to medium/medium-low heat (this part depends on your burners, you want it hot enough to lightly sauté your onions, no burning or charring)
2. Season rabbit pieces with salt and pepper while pan is heating
3. Pour enough olive oil to lightly cover the bottom of the pan and sauté onions and the few bits of garlic that were in the top third of the garlic bulb you just cut (waste not; want not right?)
4. While the onions and garlic are sautéing, dredge the rabbit pieces in your seasoned flour (shaking off excess flour)
5. When the onions and garlic pieces are soft, turn up the heat to medium and brown the rabbit pieces on both sides 
6. When you have time during the browning process, peel and cut the turnips and put them at the bottom of your slow cooker/stew pot and then throw in the rinsed potatoes
7. DON’T FORGET ABOUT YOUR ROASTING GARLIC IN THE OVEN! Take it out when it is done and allow to cool
8. If your pan is not large enough to hold all the rabbit pieces and onion/garlic mix, rotate the mix and browned rabbit pieces into the pot as well
9. Once there is space in the pan, add a little more oil to the pan and briefly sauté the mushrooms 
10. Remove any remaining rabbit from the pan (leave the mushrooms), and deglaze the pan with some of that white wine and allow to cook down to about half the volume of the liquid.
11. Extract half of your roasted garlic cloves from their skin and throw them in the pot (save the other half to spread over bread with a soft ripened cheese).
12. Throw the mushrooms and remaining liquid into the pot along with the thyme 
13. Add enough stock to fill the pot
14. Fire up the slow cooker to high for 30 min to 1 hour, then turn down to low and it go for ~6 hours.  If you’re using a pot, bring the liquid to a boil and then lower the heat to medium and cook for another hour or so until the rabbit meat is falling off the bone (but still maintains structural integrity).
15. When nearly ready to serve, pour in cornstarch slurry, mix well, and heat until liquid thickens.
16. When done, turn off the heat stir in the chopped up liver and (the liver will cook with the heat of the stew).

A buffet of invasive species news and notes from around the internet

Make way for the Easter Bilby! seeks to raise awareness about invasive rabbits (and endangered bilbies) in Australia.

Volunteers are taking back the forest in Fairfax County, Virginia.  While they’re at it, perhaps they’ll help save Virginia’s ecosystem through invasivory.

A recent study finds evidence of much higher hybridization between native and invasive trees in human-influenced landscapes compared to undisturbed forests

Identifying and Eating Japanese Knotweed

Encouraging invasivory isn’t always a good thing as evidenced by ongoing struggles in biofuels development.

New invasivore editor Winnie Winikoff  shares a rabbit stew recipe just in time for Easter.

This recipe is the result of our first experiment in cooking rabbit.  The meat smelled kind of gamey so we suspected stewing represented our best option.  We would eventually discover that the rabbit tasted somewhere between dark meat turkey and pork.  Overall, our first rabbit meal tasted great, and this recipe serves between 4 and 6 people.

Rabbit stew served over green beans

Ingredients

• 1 pound Rabbit, quartered
• 6 cups water
• 1 ½ – 2 cups fresh carrots, chopped
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 2 -3 red potatoes, quartered
• 1 can mushrooms with liquid
• 2 cubes vegetable bouillon
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• Black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in stockpot
2. When oil is warmed to medium–high heat, brown the rabbit quarters in the oil
3. Add onion and carrots, sautéing lightly
4. Add mushrooms, potatoes, pepper, garlic powder, bouillon, and water
5. Cook uncovered on high heat for about 1½ hours, stirring frequently
6. Enjoy with crispy crust bread

Red potatoes cook very quickly, especially when quartered.  This works out well because the starch in the potatoes acts as a thickener so this recipe yields a stew rather than a soup.  If you want potato chunks in your stew, add fingerling potatoes about 30 minutes before serving.

Interested in more rabbit recipes?  Check out our recipe for oven-roasted rabbit!

Easter is on it’s way.  Naturally, this inspired us to purchase a rabbit trap.

It hit 82°F the other day in South Bend, IN.  Not a great shock because it’s been that kind of winter, but it is in fact still winter.   A record high it appears, and a full  36°F above average (106% !).  Nonetheless, lunch outside, an afternoon bike ride, happy hour specials on wheat beer with fruit in it; all the hallmarks of spring.  So we got thinking, over said beers, about how to prepare ourselves.  And this was what we came up with:

Be wery, wery quiet…

Ingredients for rabbit preparation:

• 2 whole rabbits skinned and gutted, head and feet removed
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1/2 pepper
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

Instructions for rabbit preparation:

1. Divide each rabbit into three parts, the two hind legs and the rib cage (a sharp knife or a meat cleaver is useful here)
2. Heat the oil at medium medium low heat and preheat oven to 350F
3. Mix flour, salt, and spices
4. Dredge each piece of rabbit in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess
5. Pan fry each rabbit piece on the hot pan until golden brown on both sides
6. Once all the pieces are browned place in the oven for ~20-25 minutes until the internal temperature of the legs is ~150F

I then sautéed some shallots, shitake mushrooms, zucchini, and brussel sprouts in the pan that was deglazed with white wine and served to eager invasivores.

Pan-seared and oven-roasted rabbit served with sautéed vegetables and roasted rosemary potatoes.

Enjoy!

Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. David Costello to talk earthworms, research, and invasivory. 

Can you start by giving us a quick overview of your dissertation research?

My dissertation research focused on how the impact of invasive species can extend outside the typical boundaries of an ecosystem.  For example, invasive earthworms are typically thought of as a terrestrial problem, but my research showed that the way earthworms change nutrient cycling can cause excess nitrogen to enter adjacent streams.  In general, I found that if you are trying to manage invasive species in an ecosystem, you need to be aware of what is going on in the surrounding areas, even if they are completely different ecosystems.

When did you first become interested in invasive species research?

As an undergraduate at Hobart College, I got my first exposure to invasive species during a summer research internship after my sophomore year.  We conducted a survey of Seneca Lake trying to correlate zebra and quagga mussel densities to lake characteristics.  I spent the following semester studying biology abroad in Australia where the imprint of invasive species, like European rabbits, is really severe.  Both of these experiences sparked my interest in invasive species issues and research in general.

Returning to your dissertation research- have you eaten earthworms?  How did you cook them?  Can you describe your first bite?

I have eaten earthworms a couple times.  In my experience, I’ve had some success blanching them before battering in flour and deep-frying.  It is tough to get earthworms completely clean so I would describe my first bite as “gritty”.  If you can get all the dirt out of them, I think earthworms wouldn’t taste too bad.  For now, I’ll stick to gummy worms!  (Editor’s note: check out some tips on preparing earthworms here)

Dr. Costello samples a deep-fried earthworm

Do you have any other eating invasive species experiences you’d like to share?

I really enjoyed eating rusty crayfish while doing my graduate work at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center in the upper peninsula of Michigan.  My favorite cooking technique involved simply throwing them on the grill and letting them steam in their own shell (technically, an exoskeleton).  It gave them a nice smoky flavor and the meat was still pretty juicy.

What have you been working on since you graduated?

I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystem Research (CILER) at the University of Michigan.  For now I am taking a break from invasive species and working almost exclusively on chemical pollution.  I am working on a number of projects that focus on metal contamination in sediments, which is often the last thing to be cleaned up after a mine or industrial plant closes.  We are exploring the chemical and physical process that cause metal buried just below the surface to be released and how this can potentially affect organisms living on the bottom of aquatic ecosystems.  Invasive earthworms are not far from my mind and I am looking forward to resuming that research.

Any plans to eat any of your study organisms in the future?

I think it is a fun idea as long as your study organism isn’t endangered or poisonous.  I don’t have any specific study organisms right now but for any new projects in the future that will definitely be a consideration!

The Easter Bunny may have been a welcome guest at your home this weekend, but did you know that the European rabbit ranks among the world’s worst invaders?

The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) was originally native to southwestern Europe and northwestern Africa, but it can now be found around the globe.  European rabbits reproduce like, well, rabbits, so once introduced they can quickly reach high population densities nearly impossible to eradicate.  The high population sizes reached by European rabbit populations also serves to maximize their ecological impacts.

European rabbits are voracious herbivores, and their introduction can lead to extinction of native plant species.  In fact, European rabbits can be so hungry for vegetation that they will girdle the bark off of a tree to access the soft tissue below, often resulting in the death of the tree.  This extreme hunger for vegetation makes the European rabbit an extreme agricultural pest.

But the impacts of invasive European rabbits aren’t just limited to vegetation.  Their voracious appetites may help them outcompete and replace native herbivores.  Furthermore, extreme vegetation grazing paired with the digging of intricate burrows has led to erosion problems in some areas.  Finally, high densities of invasive rabbits can support the establishment of invasive predators such as feral cats.

The most notable European rabbit introduction has occurred in Australia.  In addition to exemplifying all of the impacts discussed above, the Australian invasion by European rabbits is noteworthy because it can be traced back to an intentional introduction event by one specific person!  In 1859, British pioneer Thomas Austin released 24 European rabbits on his property in Victoria, Australia, in the hopes that the “harmless” addition to the local ecosystem would provide hunting opportunities and “a touch of home.”  Too bad invasivore.org wouldn’t be around for another 150 years to warn him otherwise!